Customer Reviews

Much Ado about Nothing (The New Cambridge Shakespeare)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I am here to do my part in diminishing the value of all the one- and three- star reviews posted here, the authors of which are clearly the same person or all from the same class of children too young to read the play. Amazon visitors reading these should know two things: the reviewer is a twit, and this play is wonderful.

I, for one, am a sucker for romances; if you are, Beatrice and Benedick will make the play worthwhile. Predictability be damned, they were an adorable couple. The main couple, Hero and Claudio, are boring; the other one will make you swoon. Beatrice and Benedick are funny, clever, and stubbornly reluctant to admit they love each other. To wit, they're perfect for one another.

I have read two contradictory criticisms regarding the language in the play on Amazon: that the language is too simple for Shakespeare's standards, and that the language is too difficult. The latter was from the kid's reviews; for everyone else, the language is not so difficult to decipher that you need to avoid it. The Folger edition, at least, has one page of notes for every page of text, noting both puzzling references to Elizabethan beliefs, such as that sights draw blood from the heart, and language problems caused by the hundreds of years between Shakespeare's time and ours. The editors do all the work for you. You have no excuse. (Oh, and that the language is too simple: Bah. It's Shakespeare. That's impossible. I loved all the double entendres; this play was very witty.)

One criticism I somewhat agree with is that the plot is boring. Hero and Claudio, being the main couple, get much time, and I didn't care much about Don John's vengeance, but at least half of my favorite couple was usually present, and by no means do Hero and Claudio's plot monopolize the story. Much Ado About Nothing is often genuinely entertaining, which is what kept me interested. The plot's not the point here, it's the dialogue.

In sum, the language is poetic, but not so much so that it reads like Klingon, the romance will make you sigh, and the plot is at least good enough to keep Beatrice or Benedick in most of the time. Don't let the previous reviewers deter you: Read it.

Claire McEachern's Introduction, notes and commentary on Much Ado About Nothing suffer from the decline in real scholarship over the last few years. Previous introductory materials in Arden edition have always built on the solid scholarship of the past, adding new ideas and research as integrated parts of the growing body of knowledge associated with Shakespeare scholarship. McEachern's abandons most of the valid accepted readings of this play to wander rather aimlessly down the tunnel of self-promoting feminist, postmodern eclecticism. As a college professor, I am dismayed to see Arden turn to such contemporary and popular approaches at the exclusion of real context. The Arden editions have always set the standard, but are now falling prey to the subjective, personalized, even vindictive vents of the academic few. The field of Shakespeare criticism, unfortunately, is in danger of collapsing in on itself, and becoming completely irrelevant to anything other than these marginalized interest. More specifically, McEachern's search for sources for the play becomes a labyrinthine exposé of speculative inference and unrelated texts, ignoring primary sources for a new historicist fascination with the obscure. The tenor of her subjective argument about the play is captured in her overdone attack on Benedick as misogynist and Beatrice's rendering as the shrew. The problem, obviously, is the imbalance here; the feminist objective reduces a complex and humorous interplay to victimizer and victim, both seen from one perspective. Ignoring the historical contexts of the play, she focuses instead on marginal texts that only partially relate to the central themes of the play, to the social context, and to the audience's understanding both of Shakespeare's environs and present-day concerns. McEachern eventually backs herself into ridiculous corners, such as pages of arguing how women of the period who were too talkative (such as Beatrice) were labeled promiscuous, only to concede that Beatrice is never so labeled or even considered such. Her complete overblown fascination with the few humorous "cuckold" references in the play channel her criticism into a reductive and extremely limited analysis of minor factors in the play, while she completely avoids the important social considerations of marriage, challenges to gender roles, and the place of female intelligence in Shakespeare's society. It is a sign of the worst kind of scholarship, that her introduction to Much Ado About Nothing runs to nearly 145 pages, once the length of only the Hamlet introduction among the Arden editions (the only play, because of its complexity, demanding such a lengthy explication). Ego gets the better of scholarship here, and buries the important and necessary social, political and cultural ideas associated with this play. If McEachern's editing and commentary is a sign of things to come from Arden, they can expect to lose readers on all levels who find such marginalized approaches to important scholarship outside the interest of students and professionals alike.

I have used Shakespeare Made Easy with middle school students for the last two years, and had hoped that this would be a great edition. Alas. It is so flawed that I have decided this year to let the class work through Folger's instead, rather than have to call attention to mistakes on an ongoing basis.

What I had enjoyed about Shakespeare Made Easy MSND, was that the author had retained verse in the modern text, used language that appealed lyrically and preserved the flow and feeling of the language. This is not the case with Much Ado.

To be fair, some of the more archaic terms are nicely rephrased to help the student along, but so much of the text has been "modernized" as to make it distracting. Was it really necessary to rewrite, "My Lord, will you walk?' to "My Lord, shall we be going?" Or, "May this be so?" to "Can this be true?". There are dozens of these trivial "translations.
Changing the tense of the line is also common in this edition. For example,"follows" becomes "will follow." (Not the same immediacy at all.)
Punctuation not found in any other edition puts a highly debatable interpretation on some of the lines.

If you are using this in class, order one copy first and decide for yourself if it will work with your students. If you have always wanted to read this play, but were concerned about struggling through Shakespeare's text without anyone to help you, go ahead and order it. It will certainly help you.

The play, of course, is fabulous and funny, but Professor Gail Kern Paster's "Modern Perspective" at the end of the Folger edition really takes all the fun out of this! A feminist viewpoint is often helpful, but she just kills this thing and hurls countless arrows at marriage. No, marriage isn't perfect, but Professor Paster calls it a "private terrifying world" as if every Elizabethan-era husband locked their wife in a tower! Excuse me, Beatrice allowing herself to be treated like that? After reading this edition, I bought a different one!!!

I feel it is necessary to dispute some of the prior reviews I have just read. Shakespeare is a magnificient writer and Much Ado About Nothing is no exception. Some people have written that it is difficult to understand his language; however, the Folger Shakespeare Library has notes on the left page to explain vocabulary that modern readers may not understand. These notes also explain phrases that are no longer used such as "civil as an orange" which is a similie (with the orange being a Seville orange) having the meaning of "between sweet and sour".

Much Ado About Nothing is a witty comedy with enjoyable banter between Beatrice and Benedick, an ironical storyline, and humorous characters such as Dogberry whose malapropisms bring a smile to the reader's face.

Much Ado is Shakespeare's wittiest and most timeless comedy, with beautiful language and laugh-out-loud humor. You should be watching it, not reading it, but for the Shakespeare scholar, you can't get a better edition than the Arden. Putting together a definitive Shakespeare text is never as easy as transposing the Folio to modern type. It requires massive amounts of research and a lot of judgment calls. The Arden editors tell you where they found the words chosen, give you alternate wordings, and where necessary explain why they picked the words they did. They also give the modern reader definitions and explanations of many antiquated references and those strange, wonderful words that Shakespeare made up just for the occasion. The only drawback to the Arden edition is that often the notes use up more of the page than the text itself, but once you get used to reading them, you'll find that there's no better reference material available. And of course, no better plays!

William Shakespeare's play "Much Ado About Nothing" was an extremely funny piece of literature. I thought that it was very cleverly planned out and humorously executed. With Dogberry and his men constantly mixing up words and their meanings it gave the readers a comic relief. The deceit and mistaken identities added so much humor to the already capturing story.
I believe that Shakespeare's main point in writing this play was to show that many times, people get worked up over simple miscommunications. You mishear something wrong, or in your anger, you tune out someone before getting all the facts. All that we would need to do to fix a certain problem would be going to the source of the information, but many times we take the easy way out. We jump the gun a little and choose to believe whatever is told to us despite our gut feeling that the information is wrong.
An example of this would be when Leonato has heard of Hero's scandalous evening with Borachio. Despite the fact that she is his daughter and he would know her better than anyone, Leonato believes the lies told about Hero. Leonato, being her father and the one who raised her, should have known his daughter well enough to know that she would not dishonor her fiancé and herself. Especially the night before the wedding that she has been waiting for. Instead of choosing to believe his daughter, who firmly denies any and all sexual relationships, he joins Claudio, Don John, and Don Pedro in disgracing her.
One lesson learned from "Much Ado About Nothing" is never should people automatically assume something to be correct. We should "take everything with a grain of salt"- test everything. People in the world these days are so willing to lie to us and readily do so without a second thought. Many times people are lied to without even knowing that someone has done so. True, sometimes the lying and deceit is all in good fun, but it still has the possibility of hurting someone. Even innocent lying has its consequences.
Benedick and Beatrice both believed almost immediately that what they had overheard their friends saying in the garden was correct and completely true. Neither person decided to test what they had heard. To see if what was said was true. Because both did not check to see if the information they heard was correct, everything worked out. Both assumed what they had heard was true and acted on it. There were no visible consequences. What a mess you would have if Benedick decided that what he had overheard could not possibly be true. Beatrice would have made a fool out of herself while thinking that Benedick felt the same way. The same could be said the other way around.
I would recommend this play to other readers. If people don't like to read, then I would not tell others about it. The combination of not liking to read and the difficulty of understanding Old English would not make a very fun and pleasurable read. Many would miss out on the humor and cleverness that Shakespeare brilliantly displayed to his audience. Readers on the other hand would most likely like this play. The humor and lightheartedness makes it an enjoyable play. I found myself constantly wanting to know what would happen next and how it would end- how Shakespeare would wrap it up. The happy ending was also a nice touch. Yes, the Old English adds a challenge to the reading. The sometimes hard to understand language makes you stop and think about what Shakespeare is trying to say and ultimately makes you stop and realize what he is truly trying to communicate to his audience.

Having the original on the facing page of the paraphrase didnt translate to kindle. both versions are intertwined. what a waste of money.

Reading Shakespeare can be daunting. With these books, you can read the orginial text and a modern translation side by side. It truly helps to learn the art of reading Shakespeare. Great book.

Claudio and Hero are set to be married. The night before the wedding, Claudio is tricked into thinking he saw Hero with another man. In the meantime, some people are trying to set up Beatrice and Benedick who do nothing but argue with each other.

I found this comedy by Shakespeare quite witty. I loved the characters of Beatrice and Benedick and their interaction with each other. I'm telling you, Shakespeare has got to be the reason we have modern day soap operas. You can't have a play by Shakespeare without tons of backstabbing! There's definitely a lot of that in this one. This is probably one of the better plays I've read by Shakespeare. I have a lot more to go to complete his works though.